One shot at a One-shot
by Azilia James
Summary: A series of One-shots that will be picked by you guys! Just leave a review on an idea you have for a One-Shot, and it might just be the next chapter! (First chapter is already up!)
1. Chapter 1

Okay, so here's the first One-shot, hope you guys like it!

Injury hiding or just plain hiding.

X-o-X-o-X-o-X-o-X-o-X

Training had just ended with a steamed Keith. Pidge hadn't shown up to training, which meant that they couldn't form Voltron. Which also meant that they just worked on flying drills. And Keith's not so good with going back to the basics.

"I could have done that in my sleep! Where was Pidge?" Keith growled.

"Okay, first of all, you were conscious, your loud mouth proved it." Lance said. "And secondly, relax. Flying around in magic space lions is just as fun as forming some super robot."

"It's not magic Lance, its advance prehistoric science-! Oh, forget it; I'm not even going to try to explain this to you. It probably took you till fourth grade before you could add." Keith said.

"Hey!" Lance objected. "It was third grade thank you very much-"

"And it's not about fun, Lance." Keith continued. "It's about defeating Zarkon. You think we can do that with just our lions? We barely beat him last time, excuse me for wanting to be more prepared."

"Actually," Lance said, now just honestly wanting to get a rise out of him. "We _can_ defeat Zarkon with just our lions, cause we kinda need them to, you now, form the big space robot-"

"That's it." Keith muttered, pulling out his sword.

"Okay." Said Hunk nervously, "Now would be a good time to intervene."

"Would you two knock it off?" Sighed Shiro, walking in the dining room from the hanger. "I'm sure if Pidge missed practice, she has a good reason. "

"On that note," Lance said, taking a finger and slowing moving away the blade still pointed at his face. "I'll go make sure Pidge is still alive before Moody over here can kill her." He said, sliding out of the room, and walking down the hall. Luckily the doors closed behind him so he couldn't hear Keith's retaliation.

"I win." He smirked to himself, turning the corner to Pidge's room. Lance pounded on the door three times before saying, "Yo, Pidge, open up before Keith kills you. Man, that guy does _not_ like flying drills.."

The door slid open reviling Pidge on her bed, on top of the covers and clutching her stomach. "Hey Lance." She said. "What do you want?"

"Just wondering why you weren't at training this morning." He said, walking in the room and poking at some wires and tools spilling over her desk. "Ah!" He yelled as the pillow collided with his head, after it had been thrown across the room. "What was that for?!"

"Don't touch me stuff." Pidge said, shifting from her back to her side so she could face him, hand still tightly over her mid-section.

"At least Hunk got a warning.." Lance muttered.

"I just have _-had,_ " She corrected herself, "a stomach ache, it's nothing."

Lance laughed, holding his own stomach. "Yeah, you ate Hunk's cooking too?" He laughed.

"Well, you can go now." Pidge said. She seemed to really want to get Lance out of her room.

"Are you mad at me?" Lance questioned.

"No, I'm just, crabby… I'm fine Lance. Now go hit on Allura or something."

"Alright, I'm going, I'm going, yeesh. Wait to shoot the messenger." But as he was leaving something caught his eye, and stopped him dead in his tracks. "Pidge…?" He asked, as calmly as he could.

"What?" She asked, lying back on her back.

"Why is there blood in your trash can?!" He yelled, looking at the clothes and paper towels covered in the crimson colour.

Well _that_ got Pidge right up from bed. "It's nothing, Lance. Nothing. I cannot stress this enough, Do. Not. Tell. Anybody! Got it? It's handled!"

"Pidge, are you like, hiding an injury? Cause that's breaking like, rule one at the Garrison. You need to tell someone! Shiro could help; he got me to the Med-Bay when evil Rover tried to blow up the place."

"No!" Pidge said almost immediately. "I've got it handled, it was just a… paper cut." She said, nervously altering her glasses and giving him a sheepish smile.

Lance's eyes went from Pidge, to the trash can full of blood, then back to Pidge. A couple of seconds went by in silence and Pidge started to relax. Until lance started screaming, "Pidge is hiding an injury! Guys, Pidge is hurt!" And running down the hallway.

"Lance!" Pidge yelled, running after him down the hallway, and following him into the dining room, where the rest of the crew was. Oh, perfect.

"What?" Shiro questioned, clearly hearing Lance's screams down the hallway, along with the rest of the galaxy.

"Yea." Said Lance nodding his head and speaking way too quickly. "I saw it! She keeps holding her stomach, and and her trash can is full of blood! And and-"

"Thank you, Lance." Shiro said, cutting him off.

"Wait, blood?" Hunk said, covering his mouth. "I-I don't do too good with blood."

"I'm going to kill you!" Pidge said to Lance, her face full of anger as all eyes were on her.

"Pidge," Shiro said. "You can never hide an injury, especially from your teammates. This does not make you strong, what makes you strong is admitting when-" Shiro was cut off mid- super-inspirational speech when Pidge started banging her head ageist the table.

"Kill me. It would be kinder." She moaned never not wanting to have a conversation more in her life.

"Come on Pidge," Keith said annoyed. "Just admit you're hurt so we can help you."

"Yea." Said Hunk, and soon enough everyone was talking at once, with Pidge's face continually getting redder and redder, not from anger, though.

"I am on my period!" Pidge finally yelled, shutting everyone up in a tick.

And boy, if you though Pidge's face was red, then you should see the other paladins. In two seconds the room went 'battle with Zarkon' to 'avoiding your mom', it was so quiet. But Pidge wasn't done.

"So if I say my stomach hurts, or I occasionally miss training, then just leave me alone! Got it!" It wasn't a question, the rest of the paladins nodding their heads frantically as if Pidge was their new leader. They may as well have been talking to Zarkon, anyone who objects, dies.  
"Good." She said through gritted teeth. "See you guys in three to five days." She said, spinning on her heel and walking out the door.

The second it closed everyone breathed a sigh of relief. "Can we just go back to her being a boy again?" Lance groaned.

But just then the door opened, everyone relived it wasn't Pidge. "What is all the commotion?" Allura said. "Zarkon isn't tracking the Black lion; he's just following the sound of you all!"

"Sorry, Allura-" Keith said, but was cut off by Hunk.

"Wait, Allura, why are you holding your side?" The yellow paladin asked.

"Oh, my stomach just hurts a bit." She smiled.

Imagine her confusion when all of the paladins ran out of the room as if the castle were being attacked.

X-o-X-o-X-o-X-o-X-o-X

A/N: Hey, so I hope you guys liked it! Leave me a review of an idea for a One-Shot, and it might just be the next chapter!  
Oh, and this was my first Voltron fic, by the way, so if I got some stuff wrong then just tell me! Thanks,

-Azilia


	2. Chapter 2

Summary: When Lance wakes up in a healing pod to the ship over run by aliens and his teammates all taken prisoner, our injured Blue paladin must save the crew, all when remembering how he got there.

…..

Lance's eyes shot open, then slumped closed again in disappointment.

He was in the healing pod again. Perfect.

He felt stiff and sore, but felt no real pain. Through the grogginess, fuzzy memories passed across his eyes. They were on a planet that's name sounded like one of Pidge's science experiments, but reminded him of the Balmera with its rock like exterior, covering most of the planet, patches of some sort of plant poking through. _Peaur-something_. Lance thought.

The planet was mostly friendly, but half of its spices had turned to the Galra and enslaved its own people. The planet was far from unique, it had eight others in its solar system that closely resembled it, with the same spices of blue and green human-like creatures _. Peaurlings! That's it!_ Lance thought again.

The planets used to rely heavily on each other's trades, but since one of the planets had been taken over by its own, the seven remaining ones just must wait and see if refuges make it off. They'd help, but were a very peaceful solar system, they didn't know _how_ to fight!

And that's when the team got their call, of the reaming survivors begging for help off of the planet. The one problem, since it was their own kind that enslaved them, they couldn't tell the good ones from the bad. But it not like they could just leave them there. They had to take the risk.

Allura and Coran stayed in the Castle, getting it ready for multiple new bodies, and tuning up the security features to make sure Galra followers didn't make it on board. When they did that, Pidge, Hunk and Shiro took their lions up, drawing the Peaurlings fire away, and pulling all troops from the camp.

Which meant that Lance was stuck with Keith, getting the prisoners out of the mining camps and into the Castle. Great.

"What? You mean I'm stuck with _him_?" Lance had complained. "Okay, fine. But I'm in charge!"

"Yea." Keith scoffed. "I wouldn't trust you to guard the Castle, let alone my back."

"Hey." Shiro said. "This is not how a team operates. If you can't trust your teammates then you can't trust anyone. Pidge, Hunk, to your lions. And you two," Shiro said looking sceptical. "Wait for our single."

"Whatever." Lance grounded, heading out the door with Keith following.

"Just stay on my heals and don't screw up." Keith said as they headed down the hall.

"Hey." Lance protested. "Who made you in charge?"

"It's called common sense." Said Keith. "I'm the best pilot, Pidge is some kind of super genius. Hunk is the strongest and Shiro's the leader. What do you do?"

"Hey! I….Um….Do stuff…Important stuff! Like…" Lance said.

"Exactly." Said Keith. "So just follow my lead, don't screw up, and we'll be in and out." He said, standing by the hanger door.

They waited patiently, watched from the small window as Black, Green and Yellow all soared throughout the sky, drawing the fire away just as the caste landed.

Signal.

Just as the Castle touched the ground Lance and Keith were out running, into the first camp to clear it.

They got the seventy-five some odd Peaurlings out of the camp (Puretayta! _That's_ the name of the planet!) And lead them to the Castle through the trees, leaving them for the two Altean's to handle.

One down, fifteen to go. This was going to be a long day.

An hour or so later, after no breaks had been doled out and no words had been exchanged by the two paladins, the last camp was being cleared.

"Excellent work, Paladins." Allura nodded to the boys, though no smile crossed her face. "But the real battle is yet to come. We still must get the Castle off of this planet, and the other Paladins can only hold them off for so long. Do one last sweep through the camp then report back at once."

She was only met with nods as they turned and ran back out into the small wooded area. "There's no one here." Keith said, finally breaking their silence. He took off his helmet, doing one last glance. "Come on, let's go-"

"Wait." Lance cut him off. "Listen." He said referring to the faint voice in the woods, crying for help.

"Come on!" Keith had said, making a mad dash for it, Lance for once doing as he was told. 'Staying on his heals'. "Where's it coming from?!" Keith roared.

"Wait…" Lance breathed. Unlike Mr. HotHead, Lance took a breath, cleared his head, and followed the noise. Right into a bush, where he found some type of tape recorder with different technology from theirs. Then it all clicked.

"Keith, it's a tra-!" But Lance just noticed the mining case filled with rocks at the top of one of the caves, being pushed but Peaurlings! "Keith!" Lance yelled, not thinking, just moving, as he pushed him away just as the rocks fell.

The heavy stones rained on Lance the second Keith fell, away from the trap. "Lance!" Keith yelled, pulling out his sword and lunging just as the Peaurlings ran away, hiding in the woods.

Keith wasted no time, rushing over and pulling rocks off left and right before he finally saw the blue armor. "Lance!" He called, flipping him over. "Hey, can you hear me? Lance, come on, stay with me!"

Lance opened his eyes the tiniest bit, before smirking and cockily saying. "Ha. I _do_ have a thing! I'm the heroic one! Oh, and the handsome one…" He said, trailing off with his eyes.

"Lance! Okay, fine, prove me wrong! Prove me wrong, stay awake! Lance!?" And that was all he remembered before waking up in the pod.

…

Lance was disappointed at the emptiness of the room, whenever someone was hurt they always woke up in the pod to the whole team there waiting for them.

No team.

Just then the Castle shook, like a small explosion or battle of some sort was going on. It occurred to Lance that that was the same shaking that had woke him up in the first place. He wasn't supposed to be out of the pod yet.

Another rumble shook the room. Something defiantly wasn't right. "Ready or not, here I come." He mumbled, pushing the glass open and stepping out of the pod, catching himself before he fell. All of the pain hit him at once. "Nope…" Lance groaned in a pained voice. "Defiantly wasn't supposed to come out yet, oh well."

Lance exited the med bay and noticed he was still wearing his armor. "That's weird. Must have been in a hurry." He thought. He needed to find his friends.

He ran through the halls as fast as his aching body would let him, coming to the main entrance of the Castle where they had lead all of the refugees through. It was there, at the top of the balcony, where Lance dropped down and hid, finally hearing what was happening.

The team, all of them, were at the bottom of the stairs, bound at the wrists and ankles, along with most of the other Peaurlings, all throughout the room. He watched as all of the Peaurlings who weren't bound, roaming around carrying what looked like Galra weaponry, holding everyone prisoner.

"They snuck in with the refugees!" Lance whispered to himself. "Of course!" He said, slapping his forehead… then regretting it. "Ow…"

Lance looked down and saw that none of them had their helmets on, but still had in their ear pieces. "Perfect.." Mused Lance. "They can listen to me but they can't talk back. Keith can't complain!" He said, sliding on the helmet and whispering "Miss me?"

He watched from the balcony as the team's faces shot up in surprise. "Carful, don't give it away that you can hear me." He said, their faces turning neutral again. "I'm just going to use my awesomeness to get you guys out. Just still and look pretty. Except you, Keith You can just sit still."

Lance watched as small smiles turned upwards, but quickly went away. They couldn't give Lance away, so all they could do was wait.

…

Pidge hadn't seen it coming.

She, Hunk and Shiro had been in their lions for a little over an hour, drawing away the fire and distracting the Peaurlings so that Keith and Lance could clear out the camps.

Then Allura's voice flouted over the open feed on their helmets. " _Paladins, get back to the Castle immediately. The camps have been cleared; dock your lions before we take off_."

"What?" Shiro beat her to the question. "Princess, are you sure? I think we should stay out here and guard the Castle in case there are any attacks when we try to launch off the planet."

"Agreed." Said Hunk. "Not getting shot down by some evil Galra not-Galra aliens seems like a good plan."

" _Back to the Castle_ now." Was all Allura said, not giving the paladins any further explanation.

"What's up with her?" Pidge asked.

"I'm not sure." Shiro admitted, turning his lion around, nonetheless. "But she must have her reasons. Come on."

What Allura and Coran had failed to tell them in the briefing, however, was that Peaurlings could mimic voices, almost perfectly.

Pidge learned this the hard way when she hoped down from her lion. Before her feet touched the ground, she was sent flying into the wall. Good thing the new Galra weaponry had a Stun setting.

…

"Okay, a bunch of freaky Galra worshiping aliens are downstairs keeping all of my friends' hostage." Lance grumbled to himself as he headed down the hall. "Am I forgetting anything? Oh yea, they have some super fancy guns. Anything else? Oh right, they probably have Zarkon on speed dial." Lance muttered, turning the corner. "One day. We can't have one normal day."

Lance stopped in his tracks as he heard a voice from down the hall. "Hallway clear." He heard the alien speak. A small smile spread across Lance's face, as he opened the first door he saw and jumped in.

Communicator.

As soon as the alien passed the doorway, Lance shot him with his Bayard. He walked to the body and picked up the com. "Doesn't matter if I make it out of this, Keith's going to kill me for being in his room, anyways."

The second Lance was in the training deck's observing platform, he took out to communicator the alien had been using. Plan A better work, he didn't have a B…

….

Shiro hadn't seen it coming.

He found the command from Allura to be odd, but she was in the Castle and knew more of what was going on than anyone else, so he backed her up, telling Pidge and Hunk to dock their lions.

He regretted the dissension as soon as soon as he exited Black's hanger, being too, blind sighted. As the purple electricity spewed from the gun and encased his body. Being of a heavier build then a fourteen year old girl (Thankfully), Shiro managed to hold onto consciousness a little longer then Pidge, and almost wished he hadn't.

He lay on the floor with the world quickly turning black but distinctively heard the Peaurling say to his partner, "That's the last one, we've already got the other two. Put them with the rest."

Shiro woke up on the floor, just at the bottom of the stairs of the Castle, with his hands and feet bound. He looked around and saw his teammates were all with him, in a line up. His first instinct was to reach for his Bayard but the team quickly shook their heads. It took one glace around to room to realize they were out gunned by things the Galra thought was too dangerous to give to its own soldiers. Just then Pidge opened her eyes, too, and the Peaurling spoke.

"Ah, and the last one awakens." The leader, the team presumed, spoke. It was clearly a woman, closely resembling a human. The leader had dark blue lips and hair, but shorter then Allura's, with markings on her face the same colour. They really stood out on the light blue skin. She was clearly the leader, as she was at least two heads taller than all of the others, and the small, pointy gold crown she wore on her head implied her status. She looked like something Lance would have hit on in two seconds, but her large, black eyes made her look just as evil as she was.

"About time." Another said.

The Queen's dark blue lips smiled in a wicked form. "Getting thrown into a wall usually does that."

The team all looked to Pidge with the same look of 'A wall. Really?'Pidge just shrugged and gave an embarrassed grin. 'What?' She thought. 'I'm small.'

"You will notice." The Queen said. "That you are not gagged. Those of you who speak, die. Understood?"

"Fine." Said Shiro, grabbing the team's attention. "Shoot me if you want, I need to know what makes someone turn on their own kind."

Two green Peaurlings on either side of the leader raised their guns, but she commanded them down. "The bold one speaks." She mused. "And I have not done turning of any kind, lion rider. Do you not see? I have just ensured my people to live in riches for all the coming days, what with after I hand Zarkon Voltron, we will have the most powerful of allies. 'Tis war and one must choose sides."

"Yea?" Asked Shiro asked. "Then what of your people that you enslaved? What about the majority of your people who sit here on the floor tied up, along with your prisoners?"

The leader laughed, but there was nothing joyful about it. "They chose the wrong side."

Shiro glanced over to Allura as soon as the Queen had disappeared up the stair case. He had noticed immediately that one of the team members was not there.

'Lance?' Shiro mouthed. Keith just looked away, and Allura and Coran gave him a worried expression. Worry seeped in when, out of nowhere, they all hard it. "Miss me?"

It sounded like hope, but their faces all remained neutral after instruction. Keith's face remained unreadable, but still rolled his eyes at the comment.

It was minutes later that even Shiro himself couldn't help but smile as he heard the familiar voice come over all of the Peaurlings communicators. "All available Peaur…things, have a rouge (1) Voltron Paladin in Training room 1873, all hands, or whatever they are, on deck! "

There wasn't even time to think about what had just happened because half of the Peaurlings were out of the room in a mad dash, just as soon as their Queen yelled "Go!"

With half of them gone Keith took the courage to whisper, ever so quietly, "Better hope Lance knows what he's doing."

….

As the Peaurlings began to pour into the training room Lance watched from the observation deck. "Hope I know what I'm doing.." Lance mumbled, waiting until enough got in, but not waiting too long for them to realize it was a trap. Just as soon as the last on from the group was in, Lance pushed the button, closing the door. He then took out his Bayard and blasted the lock to the door.

"No turning back now." Lance said. He then jacked up all of the training settings to full blast, everything, they were all in Altean, so Lance pretty much just pushed every button.

They began launching their Galra blasters at the window to the platform Lance was in, it's purple energy eating away at the glass in a second and having it shatter. Lance quickly hit the deck, feeling everything the healing pod had yet to fix. He groaned heavily. "Clean up on isle six."

Lance stayed down until the sounds from the training room quieted down. He finally dared to pear through the broken glass to see every single one of the Peaurlings on the ground.

None moved.

…..

Keith hadn't seen it coming.

He had gotten paired with Lance, _Lance_ for Gods sakes! To clear slave camps none the less. Something that required focus and order. _Had Shiro ever met Lance?!_

Apparently not, and Keith was looking for any excuse to keep Lance quite. They had a job to do, his first one with Lance since the Balmera, not to mention. Shiro had already given him multiple lectures about how he needed to play nice with others, or whatever. How he couldn't keep getting away with saying two words to Pidge and ignoring Hunk and fighting with Lance anymore. If he wanted to be a part of this team then he had to start acting like it, and if doing a successful mission with Lance was the best way to get Shiro off of his back then so be it!

But if he had to listen to Lance that whole mission then someone was going to die. And if Lance led the mission then it was going to be him. "Just stay on my heals and don't screw up." Keith told him.

"Hey." Lance protested. "Who made you in charge?"

"It's called common sense." Said Keith. "I'm the best pilot; Pidge is some kind of super genius. Hunk is the strongest and Shiro's the leader. What do you do?" it didn't matter, Lance was untouchable. If this is what it took to dial back Lance's ego for a few hours then Keith would just apologize later…probably.

He didn't mean any of it; truth was Lance was the best shot on the team. And probably the bravest. Or stupidest, however you want to look at it. Not like he would ever tell Lance any of this.

"Hey! I….Um….Do stuff…Important stuff! Like…" Lance said. Perfect, it was getting to him. He was not screwing this mission up. Man, maybe Shiro was right. Maybe he _did_ need to have most faith in his teammates. Oh well, damage is done.

"Exactly." Said Keith. "So just follow my lead, don't screw up, and we'll be in and out."

What Keith hadn't been expecting was for Lance to save his ass. It was all happened to fast, so damn fast! One second they were running through the woods and the other Lance was getting freaking Spidy senses.

Keith hadn't even realized what was happening until he had heard Lance's cut off yells of "Keith, it's a tra-" And next thing he knew he was being pushed out of the way. When he turned around he was met with an avalanche of mining rocks and some alias running for the hills.

"Lance!" Keith had yelled. Keith instinctively pulled his Bayard on the Peaurlings, who had already quickly fled into the woods. There was no thought process involved in pulling off the rocks, he just did it. Mind cloudy as all he could think of was that Lance was somewhere in the rubble, that Lance was there saving _him._

"Guess Shiro was right about the trust." He mumbled.

Finally Keith saw the blue armor. "Lance!" He called, flipping him over. "Hey, can you hear me? Lance, come on, stay with me!"

Lance opened his eyes the tiniest bit, before smirking and cockily saying. "Ha. I _do_ have a thing! I'm the heroic one! Oh, and the handsome one…" He said, trailing off with his eyes. Jeez, even when he was being pulled from the battle he was cocky!

"Lance! Okay, fine, prove me wrong! Prove me wrong, stay awake! Lance!?" All Keith could feel was panic. That was it. His hand shook, his stomach turned hollow and filled with ice and his throat filled led. He wanted nothing more than to hear Lance's egotistical words or funny jokes.

But now was not the time. "Well, Shiro wanted us to bond." Keith mumbled as he picked up and dashed though the woods.

He didn't know how to work the pod, had only seen the two Altean's do it. He had thrown Lance in the closest pod, whispering "Hold on, Lance." As he went off in a mad dash to find Allura or Coran.

He defiantly wasn't expecting the bolt of Galra energy to hit him in the chest as soon as he rounded the corner.

….

Keith sat with the rest of the crew, half off the Peaurling guards gone to the trap they all new Lance had set. It was then that their Galra following captors' coms began going off like crazy with distress calls.

Guess that was their queue.

Hunk had stood up, grabbling Pidge's Bayard and slicing the shackles off in a swing. When had Hunk gotten his shackles off?! It was clear his team had already made a plan.

Nonetheless blind sighted or not, Keith stood up in a tick, his teammates at his side, minus one, and the battle begun, though no one could find the Queen.

…

Lance ran down the hallway as fast as his pounding everything would let him. Who knew rocks were so heavy?

He had turned on his ear piece to hear the battle had broken out, guess his plan had worked. Lance rounded the corner and was met with giant black eyes, and a piercingly evil smile.

Not this chick again.

"Your friend's be'ith in battle, my people appear to lose." The Queen said, her voice sounded like it was hooked to a synthesizer, and though her words were bad her smile never wavered.

"Okaaaaaaaaaay." Said Lance. "Well then this is usually the part where I take you prisoner, because your, you know, _losing_."

"But just because our battle is lost does not mean that we shall not get a prize!" And with that the Queen drew Galra energy, similar to the ones from the blaster, out of her own hands!

"You're a Druid?!" Lance nearly yelled in surprise.

"Far from it. I just absorb the energy of anything I touch, that 'tis why my family rules. You are an energetic one; let me see how long I shall dine on it!" She called, blasting the energy at him, Lance diving out of the way and activating his Bayard before he hit the ground

"Sorry lady, I'm off the menu." Lance said, shooting frantically and watching the Queen deflect them with the Galra energy. Lance then shot at the ceiling, having part of it fall off and crash over her head.

She lay motionless. Lance approached her carefully, and before he even had time to blink, he was being engulfed in energy craving hands, as it was being sucked out of him.

Lance screamed out in pain at the extraction, but felt himself getting weaker and weaker until he could no longer fight back.

And then it all stopped. Lance fell to the ground with a thud, and saw Keith on the other side of the Queen, his sword drawn and the Leader unmoving.

Keith smirked. "Guess we're even now." Lance smirked back, and that was once again the last thing he remembered before waking up in a pod, yet again.

…

Lance smiled this time when he wove up, because he was no longer met with an empty room. The pod door opened with a hiss, and Lance practically fell out, leaning on Hunk for support. "What'd I miss?" He smiled.

"Just a heck of a save." Said Shiro. "You really had our backs there, Lance. Thank you."

"Oh on, Shiro's on his soap box again." Lance remarked, as the crew laughed.

"We got all of the refugees to one of their sister planets." Pidge explained. "We gained seven new allies, even though they don't, you know, _fight_. Still nice to have." She shrugged.

"You should have seen it!" Said Hunk. "It was crazy, the Peaurling guys were all like, blasting with their Galra Tec, and then I got my Bayard, right? And I'm all like 'you alien dudes are sooo lucky that I don't have my lion!' and then we totally freed the refugees, then _they_ started fighting back, the Queen went AWAL but Keith told us about that, and then-"

"Thank you, Hunk." Allura cut off. "But there is no need to overwhelm the paladin. Come, you must be starving."

"I made up a fresh batch of some genuine Altean cuisine!" Coran said proudly.

"Give it to Pidge." Keith smirked. "She needs some meat on the bones, from what I hear a blast sends her flying."

"Into a wall!" Hunk laughed.

"Alright, I'm getting real sick of this!" Pidge yelled. "I didn't see it coming!"

"Neither did we, but we didn't Super-Man it." Laughed Hunk.

"What is this 'Super-Man'?" Coran asked.

"It's an Earth thing." Shiro answered, heading out of the room with the others.

"Could it help us ageist Zarkon?" Allura asked.

"Super-Man could _defiantly_ defeat Zarkon!" Hunk said.

Pidge groaned. "One fight I would vote for Zarkon in."

And before they knew it, it was just the Red and Blue paladins in the room. "I can really feel the love." Lance said dryly, as he turned to Keith. "Guess we do make a good team." He smiled.

"Shut up, that's what you said last time." Keith said.

"What last time?"

"Never mind." Keith sighed. "Thank you, though, Lance. For the save, I mean. I guess you're not completely useless to have on a team after all."

"Really. Really?! 'I guess you're not unless'. _That's_ what I get for saving you?!"

"Well, I did save you too…"

"Keith!"

"Best your gonna get." Keith shrugged.

"Fine." Sighed Lance. "I'll take it. Hey, I guess we did bond after all. And we learned that I'm the super brave heroic one of the group, so-"

"Bonded?" Asked Keith. "What are you talking about?"

"Come on! I totally saved your life, you weren't wearing your helmet, those rocks would have crushed you! Then you saved mine from the evil Queen chick.." Lance looked at Keith's lost expression. "You carried me back to the ship!" Lance said.

Keith smiled. "Nope, don't remember it, didn't happen."

"Oh, come on!"

….

A/N: Hope you guys liked it! Worked really hard! Pleeeeeese review!  
And if you have any idea on what you want for the next One-shot (Or two shot if you want) Then please tell me in a review or PM! No Ships please! Love you guys!

-Azilia


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: This idea was submitted by Kelli.n.c-

Story idea: Could you possibly write a story about Pidge learning about nature magic. like that one episode of season 2? maybe even about lance, hunk or Pidge getting hurt or sick?

Tried to do my best with this one, I am so sorry that ii took so long! Enjoy and please review with more ideas!

…..

Pidge smiled to herself at her ruined tools, all spread across the table in no order whatsoever. All of them growing various roots. "I'm getting good at this." She mused.

"Getting good at what?" Lance asked, making her jump out of her skin and spin around in a hurry. "Gah! Oh, hey Lance." Said the startled paladin.

"Nice, uh, plant-y things." Hunk observed, picking up an Altean-like screw driver growing roots out of the bottom. "Sooo, is there like, a _reason_ you destroyed all of your tools, or was it more of a boredom kind of thing-?"

"I'm practicing." Pidge interrupted. "I don't want my Olkari engineering to get rusty. You never know when this stuff will come in handy."

Lance scoffed. "Yeah, 'cause when Zarkon's attacking us I defiantly want to have my plant magic on stand-by."

"It's not _magic,_ Lance." Pidge said flatly turning to face him. "It's nanocellulose responding to electrical impulses through neurological pathways, being sent in binary code-" She just starred at the blank faces.

"Soooo, magic?" Asked Lance.

" _It's not magic!"_ Pidge yelled. "And as I recall, _Lance,_ I was the only one who could do it."

" _Please_." Lance said nonchalantly with wave of the hand. "Me and Hunk were just out of our element on a planet filled with Olkari geniuses. Weren't we, Hunk?"

"Well, actually, the Olkari were really nice-" Hunk mumbled in the background

"You couldn't do Olkari 'magic' if you tried." Pidge said slyly.

"Me and Hunk could grow mind plants _no problem._ " Said Lance, their faces only inches apart the spat grew more heated. All Hunk could do was watch.

"Okay, well, I mean, _little problem_ considering I'm not all brushed up on my 'binary' yet, and, uh, I think I hear _Shiro calling…_ " Hunk nervously said to deaf ears.

"That a challenge?" Pidge smirked.

"That an offer?" Lance smirked back.

"You're on!" They yelled in unison, as Hunk merely mumbled an ' _oh no_ ' under his breath.

Pidge slid off the Olkari crown and handed it to Lance. "I bet neither of you can get this to work." Said Pidge, sliding off all of the tools from her metal desk, and placed a wench in the middle of it. She ignored the odd throbbing she got in her head when she took the crown off. Weird.

"Uh, how'd I get wrapped up in this again?" Asked Hunk.

"On the first day at the Garrison you walked up to Lance and said 'Hi. I'm Hunk.'" Pidge said flatly.

"Oh, right. Forgot about that." Said Hunk.

"Loser has to tell Shiro he's pretty." Said Lance.

"….What?!" Pidge laughed out in surprise.

"Do _you_ want to walk up to him and say that? _With_ a straight face!" Lance asked.

"Good point." Pidge agreed.

Lance took the Olkari crown, put it on his head, and proceeded to make grunting noises for the next five minutes until his face turned red. "I think mine's just a wrench." Lance whined.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Lance tried for a couple more minutes before finally letting Hunk have a turn at it. Hunk, however only tried for about half the time. Until finally a small, tiny sprout emerged from the bottom of the wrench.

"Ha!" Lance screamed, shoving the wrench in Pidge's face as she pushed it away. "Guardian spirit of the NOTHING!" He called, throwing the wrench to the ground and dancing, as Hunk just laughed.

"Whatever." Rolled Pidge. Now she was sure her headache was just from these two idiots.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Keith watched Pidge, along with Lance and Hunk, stroll into the missions room. Lance looked like he was gloating, so nothing new there. Hunk rolling his eyes, and Pidge looking like she was about to die. Like I said, nothing out of the ordina- wait, what was that thing about dead Pidge?

"What happened to you?" Keith asked Pidge.

"She's just mad that she questioned my awesomeness." Lance said.

"Who was the one who actually _did it,_ again?" Hunk asked.

"Team effort, buddy." Lance smiled, draping an arm over his pal. "Team effort."

"I'm not even going to ask." Said Keith, turning his attention back to Pidge. "What I _meant,_ Lance," Keith said annoyed, "is Pidge, you look kinda… _off_. You okay?"

"You're not looking too hot." Shiro said, entering the room and joining the party.

 _Ha,_ Pidge thought, _Not looking too hot? That's all I'm feeling._ "What? Yea I'm fine." She said instinctively, not even knowing why he was lying. It wasn't that big of a deal, so why bother?  
Ever since she and they boys had goofed around with that stupid bet her head was beating to a steady drumbeat. It was like an AC/DC drum roll blaring in her skull.  
But now someone was crashing on the cymbals! Her mouth was getting dry and she felt like long sleeves was a bad dissension. Well, I mean it's not like she had a whole lot of clothing options, but still, what was she supposed to do? Get _clothes_ at the Space Mall™? Ha, no thank you, a Games Shear was at risk.

Pidge groaned. She knew she was getting sick, she could deny it all she wanted, but this is exactly how she felt the day before her fever spiked a few years back. Damn Matt had sneezed on her, resulting in a mucus-induced five days of hell. "And by 'fine' I mean I feel like I just got in the way of Lance and a mirror."

"Hey!" Called Lance.

"What is a _mirror?"_ Allura asked as the doors to the Castles control room opened once more.

"I think Number Five is referring to an Altean Skungmiltion! Ah, those were the days. Back when real men would have to fight down a Skug just to fix their hair!" Coran reminisced as he strutted into the room. Because Coran doesn't walk, Coran struts.

"Coran, please." Moaned Lance. "Can we just go a day _without_ your weird stories about your nutso planet?"

"I beg your pardon, Blue. I am not aware of what a 'nutso' is, but will assume that it was meant in disrespect!" The ginger-haired, more than a few screws loose, Altean yelled.

Pidge sighed, not wanting to explain this right now. "Lance, we can do this tomorrow. I'm going to go lay down." Pidge said, turning on her heal and leaving without another word.

"An Earth sickness, I presume?" Allura asked, but right as the doors closed behind Pidge Lance suddenly felt like he was being knocked off of his feet by dizziness. Was the room swaying? Hunk make bad space meat again? Another asteroid field? Because the last one _was_ pretty fun… Lance looked over to see Keith grabbing his arm.

"What're you doing?" Lance said, well, more mumbled, as he tried to jerk his arm away.

"You were falling over, doofus." Keith rolled, pulling his hands away from Lance's arms, but not before making sure he was steady.

Lance sat down on the step, as Hunk began holding his stomach. "Ohhh no, my stomach hasn't felt like this since the first joy ride in Blue." He moaned. "Or the simulator…or, you know what, anytime Lance flies!" The overgrown boy moaned.

"Allura, I thought you knew how to pilot this thing, could you make it stop swaying?!" Said Lance, aggravated.

"Um.. It's not, Lance." Said Allura baffled, with Hunk slumping down right beside him.

"Alright." Said Shiro, "What's going on here?"

"Hunk's food finally caught up with them." Keith snickered.

"Not helping." Shiro said flatly.

The doors slid open once more only to reveal a concerned looking mustached man. "Um...Princess? We have a problem…" He said.

"Not now, Coran." Allura said, making eye contact from across the room. "Half of the paladins have fallen ill, I'm afraid. We haven't the slightest idea why. There is simply nothing air born that can be carried through the Castle's ventilation systems."

"Um, yea, about that..." Coran said, making his way further away from the door and closer to the others. "I think I found out what that might be..." He said, handing Allura a metal Earth wrench, the small beginnings of roots growing out of the bottom.

Allura's eyes grew. "Oh no." She breathed, turning her attention to the rest of the paladins, minus Pidge. "Lance, Hunk, what were you and Pidge going in the hanger? Using the Olkari technology I presume." She sighed.

"Yea." Lance groaned, rubbing his forehead as the room continued to sway. "Pidge was working on making her tools sprout roots and she let us have a try, why?"

"Lance!" Allura cried, "There is a reason the Olkari flourished in the woods, their technology is only supposed to be used on _organic_ matter! That is why it was so dire we got to them! Using their magic on the metal cube was draining them! If you use the crown on anything non-organic, such as metals-!" She said holding up the tool, "then it makes the crown work in reverse. It drains the object of all its chemical components, sending the electrical impulses straight into the brain."

"English." Lance bit out, his eyes closed tightly as he pushed the nausea down.

"When you use Olkari engineering on organic matters," Allura said, slow and frustrated, "means the chemicals it sends back into your head are virtually harmless to organic beings. By using it on _metal_ you are sending genetic made chemicals, and its _fumes,_ directly into your head, where the receptor lays."

"Making you sick." Keith finished, understandingly. "Like breathing in paint fumes or smoke inhalation."

"Oh no," Hunk moaned, "I've burned down my mom's kitchen enough times to know _smoke inhalation._ This is much worse."

"That's why the Green Lion can do it," Corn continued, "She's already made of metal, so it can't hurt her."

"I'm just relived we found this out now." Allura said. "How long did you both use it for?"

Hunk and Lance looked at each other for a second, both shrugging. "About ten minutes." Hunk answered.

"Good." The Princess breathed. "Consequences should be far from dire."

"Uh…Allura?" Asked Hunk, both arms wrapped tightly around his stomach. "What happens if you use the crown for a long time?"

"Mm." She pondered. "Every species is different, but for humans I am fairly sure it causes the brain to swell, which causes humans to reach extremely high temperatures."

"Pidge!" Lance yelled, jerking upwards, before falling right down again. This time Lance didn't stop Keith from catching him.

"What?" Asked Shiro.

"Pidge!" The boys repeated as Keith set him back down. "She's been using the Olkari crown on her tools _all day."_ Lance said worriedly.

"For Quiznak knows how long!" Hunk added.

There was a moment of silence, the calm before the storm, before everyone ran out of the room. They didn't have to look far, though, as they found Pidge passed out on the hallway floor. Her fever? Forty degrees. (104 Fahrenheit)

This was gonna be a long night.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"Pidge" Shiro called, patting her face gently, desperately trying to stir the young teen. But, to no avail.

"We've got to get her to a pod!" Keith called assertively.

"That won't be much help." Said Coran, helpful as always. "The Pods are _Healing._ They can only help with injuries, nothing for sickness."

"Well _that_ seems like a design flaw." Lance moaned as he and Hunk finally made it to the hallway, slumping agents the wall.

"Not in the slightest." Said Allura, feeling the burning girl's forehead. "The Cryo Pods are Altean technology, a race much older than your human. We have immunity for almost all diseases. Only around three percent of Altean's will ever fall ill, and only two percent of them will die. And that is only in children whose immune systems did not properly develop! We have virtually no reason for illness ridding pods- nor the technology. It is an untapped field."

Allura frowned at the memory. One year, about two before she and Coran ended up in that freezing pod with nothing but time ahead of them and a broken planet behind them, she remembered the day. Two Altean children, in Earth years around six, had both fallen ill with a common cold. The Kingdome had gone into mayhem, one child becoming ill was almost unheard of, but two? And twins, nonetheless.

"Why is this not being researched?!" Alfore demanded, usually a calm and collected leader, voice now booming at his team, the people who were supposed to make this society keep moving forwad.

"W-well sir," The lanky man spoke for his team of three, "only about o-one child falls ill every few dobashs'… b-barley ever die…"

"And we will not do everything in our power to save that one child?" The King boomed once more. That was the same line Alfore had used later that night to begin his speech to his people. The Kingdome was broken after the loss of the two young ones. For that little boy and girl had been eternally put to sleep by a common cold and genetics. But not as broken as the parents in the front row, sobbing.

"We will put all of our recourses, all of our time, into assuring this never happen again." Alfore spoke. "And weather it only saves one child, or hundreds, it will still be a life. One we can save!" The Kingdom cheered and cheered at the Kings hopeful words. Allura remembered it as being one of her proudest memories of her father in power.

However, with Zarkon progressively getting stronger and more distant with the paladins, the King's beautiful promises never got off the ground. All those resources and time went somewhere else. A plan that didn't get off of the ground ten thousand years ago could have saved Pidge now.

Allura shook these memories away.

"Wait, wait, wait." Said Hunk. "Hold up, so you're saying that we've got a sick Pidge in a castle built by a species that has had no use for medicine in over a million years?"

"Precisely." Answered Allura.

"Great." Shiro sighed. "Just perfect."

Pidge didn't even stir.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Shiro had decided to put the three in the Med-Bay anyways, as he thought keeping them together and within sight was the best of a bad situation.

Keith had managed to help Coran pull out the old beds tucked away somewhere in the back of the Med-Bay. Pidge's skin was on _fire,_ though her forehead sweated, her face scrunched in pain. This wasn't good.

Hunk, having aced the technology within minutes, condition stayed virtually the same with the nausea hitting him profusely. What else was new?

Lance's, however, got slightly worse as the room was now going a mile a minute. Everything and everyone was a blurred figure. He couldn't keep his eyes open to stare at the Marry-Go-Round his world had become. Lance's eyes stayed closed tightly in this all around hell, reminding him of the time his older brothers had duck taped him to a spinning chair for an hour after he had ratted out to mom about the beer under their beds.

"What's she at?" Lance asked tightly to Keith from where he lay. Keith looked to Shiro, who used the meat thermometer on the girl as it was the best they had.

Keith watched their leader pale as he said "Forty-eight (118 F)."

"Shiro…" Keith said, eyes darting down to the girl. "If she gets any higher…"

"I know." He bit out. "Coran, I know you know very little of the human anatomy but all you need to know is that if Pidge's temperature gets anything past fifty," He said, pointing to the number on the thermometer for the Altean to see, "Then things will get very bad, very fast. I need you to go to the kitchen and get anything cold, do you understand?"

Coran, obviously not understanding why something _cold_ would cure the Paladin, simply nodded. "Of course, in just a tick number five will be the coolest Paladin!" He said, running out of the room.

"I shall assist." Called Allura, following the man as she and her immune ways were not much help.

Hunk continued to wrench his guts out as Shiro continued to worriedly talk to the seemingly comatose girl, trying to rouse her. Keith was left standing placeless.

"Bella." Lace moaned.

"What?" Keith asked, being the only one to hear it.

Lance moaned again, keeping is eyes still tightly closed as he rolled onto his side a bit. Someone slow the world down. "When I was five, I had a baby sister named Bella," Lance said, and Keith was almost sure he wasn't sure what he was saying. "She got too hot and died, just like Pidge."

"Hey!" Said Keith, suddenly all seriousness as he grabbed Lance's arm. "Pidge isn't going to die, Lance, you hear me?" But lord was this kid out of it. His words were moaned and his face was unresponsive, other than being scrunched in pain, much like Pidge's.

"Cayenne." Lance slurred out assertively.

"What?" Keith asked, dumbfounded.

"Cayenne peppers." Lance repeated. "They help. I don't know why, but they do."

Keith nodded, though he knew Lance couldn't see it, patting his arm before walking over to Shiro.

"Shiro?" Keith asked. "This might be kinda…out there, but," he glance back at Lance, praying the jerk wasn't about to make a fool out of him (making up a dead baby to make him look dumb wasn't something Lance had ever done, but Keith wouldn't put it past him.) "Do you know if there's any Altean form of Cayenne on the ship?"

"What?" Said Shiro, looking away from the girl to make wild eyes at Keith.

"You know.." Keith sighed, "Cayenne? Like, the spice?"

"Did someone say 'spice'?" Hunk asked, head popping up from his bed. "Check my room."

"You have bags of spices in your room?" Keith asked flatly.

"Yup. First month at the Garrison found a bag of my oregano, I almost got Lance expelled."

"I can vouch to that." Lance moaned, weakly throwing his pillow at him.

"Hey, how many times do I have to say I'm sorry?" Hunk asked.

Lance's hand was covering his eyes as the room moved. "You try being on the phone with your Dad for an hour trying to explain that the weed the Dean found was really just your roommate's seasonal blend!"

"I'm sorry!" Hunk screamed for the hundredth time, but Keith was already out the door, Shiro not far behind.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Hunk's room, being the most well organized room in the whole Castle (After sharing a room at the Garrison with Lance for a year and a half he kinda of went a little crazy… but you try living with a guy who considers a dresser and the floor the same thing!)

"Shiro!" Keith called over as he grabbed the spice throwing it to the man from across the room.

"Got it!" Shiro called back as they both darted out of the room wordlessly, nearly trampling over the Alteans.

"Coran, water!" Shiro yelled to the man, as he handed over his frozen goods to Allura. "Princess, follow me!"

"Um…water?" Asked Coran.

"Space Juice!" Keith yelled over his shoulder as the trio ran down the hall.

As they got to the Med-Bay, Allura handed over a bag of frozen fruits they had gotten from the last planet they visited. The peace operation had been a success. "What good will these do?" Allura asked, as he placed it on Pidge's head. Her eyes scrunched, just the slightest bit.

It was something!

Shiro sighed the smallest sigh of relief, looking to the Princess. "Pidge is getting too hot, which is really bad for humans." He tried to explain.

"But, why? I'm sorry Shiro, I am usually contempt your species odd habits, but you can honestly tell me our young Paladin is at deaths door due to _heat."_

Fair. This was the equivalent to Coran suddenly collapsing and Allura only telling them that it was because a noise was too loud, and that he was going to die unless he had two jugs of apple cider. It didn't make any since to her and that wasn't fair.

"Okay," Shiro explained to the sound of Hunk barfing and the breeze of Keith pacing. "Humans have a core temperature of thirty-seven degrees, got it? If they get hotter than that, then it makes them sick. Pidge is getting dangerously hot, so but putting something _cold_ on her skin…"

"It helps to factor out the heat." Allura said understandingly.

"Exactly." Black answered as Coran came running in.

"Space juice as requested!" He yelled.

Keith took the glass and poured the spice in. "This better work…" He mumbled, handing it to Shiro. Keith watched as Shiro gently lifted up her head and pour the cocktail into her mouth.

Now all they had to do was wait.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The next morning Hunk was on his feet and Pidge's fever was down to a manageable 42 (107 F).

Lance on the other hand had not fully succumbed to his illness, the room still swaying, but not nearly as fast. He had spent the night in the Med-bay along with Pidge. Well, and Shiro, as he and the others wouldn't leave Pidge's side. Checking up on him every hour. "You alive?" Hunk would say. "Still kicking." Lance would answer.

"Keith?" Lance asked as he passed by, on his way to try and convince Shiro to get some sleep for the ump-tenth time.

"Yeah?" He asked, stopping in his tracks to glance at the dizzy boy.

"The Cayenne work?"

Keith smiled. "Yea, it's going down. Shiro said he thinks she'll wake up soon. You, uh, you weren't kidding about your kid sister, were you?" He asked sheepishly, realizing how stupid his doubt really sounded out loud.

Lance actually laughed. Then groaned as he grabbed his head again. "No I didn't make that stuff up to make you look like an idiot, _trust me,_ you don't need my help with that."

"Says the idiot who used an Olkari crown on a metal."

Lance grabbed his forehead and leaned back. "You've got me there."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The next day, after fainting twice, Lance was back on his feet and annoying as ever. Lance's weird-ass home remedies had actually been working, and Pidge's fever was down another three degrees.

"Okay!" Said Lance, passing the room. "It's been three days, is Pidge dead?!"

"She's not dead moron, she's asleep." Keith said, rolling his eyes.

"Really? 'Cause she looks dead!"

"Would you two be quiet!" Said Shiro, turning away for Pidge to shut them up.

"Hey, Keith started it." Lance said, putting his hands up like he had never done a thing wrong in his seventeen years in this galaxy.

"What?!" Said Keith, taking the bate.

"Actually, I was here," Said Hunk. "I think it was more of a mutual thing, not a one or the other."

"Hey, whose side are you on?" Asked Lance defensively.

"Did you not _just_ hear him?" Keith asked annoyed. "He literally didn't pick a side."

"A side in what?" Allura asked.

"Wait…Okay, what are we even talking about anymore?!" Lance whined, even though no one really knew…

"I don't know, I think it was something about my demise." Pidge rasped.

"Ah!" Lance yelled, "It is alive!"

"It?" Asked Pidge, "How long was I out for if I was already demoted to an It? You guys didn't give away Green, did you?"

Hunk laughed. "Never."

"Glad you're feeling better," Shiro smiled. "So I can say what a reckless thing it was that you all did! Do you know how dangerous it is to be using technology you don't understand on anything within reach?! Do you _know_ how worried we were? How worried _I_ was! What do you have anything to say for yourself, Pidge? Anything?!" Shiro ranted. The guy worried, he was a leader, couldn't help it.

Pidge smiled. "You're pretty."

…

Hope you liked it Lovelies!

Review!

-Azilia


	4. Chapter 4

Review (Submitted by: Fir3danc3r) - _Awwwwww Pidge my child/reincarnation of meeee! I have an idea, could you write a one-shot about Pidge and her rediculous (I can't spell god...) amount of all-nighters and her late night experience with any paladin of your choosing? Whether you do or not, keep being awesome and update soon! :)_

A/N: Hey guys, so I just wrote a math exam (final, whatever you wanna call it!) -_-, and got an idea! I'm going to take my own little spin on this, hope you like it!

….

Title: _Leave the math to Pidge_

The crew immerged from their hangers to the mission's room, having just ended a pretty unsuccessful training session. Voltron was going down, _fast,_ after miscalculating a formation. Lance had extended Voltron's leg just in time, softening the blow enough for everyone to walk out of it unscaved.

" _This_ is why traditions are put in place, Coran." Allura hissed as the paladins entered.

"Princess, please." Said Coran, trying to keep the woman's voice down. "These are age old traditions now." He said, still trying to get used to the fact that seven months ago for them was ten thousand years for the rest of the galaxy.

"Should I ask?" Shiro questioned, moving in closer to the control center where Allura was standing, the others behind him.

"It takes more to pilot Voltron then just being well enough at flying." Allura said to the team, catching them all off guard a bit. "You need strong minds, too. To be able to problem solve and decision make on the spot. And as for that jump I just saw-"

"That was my fault, Allura." Pidge cut in. "I miscalculated our landing by a few feet. It was no big deal, it won't happen again."

"No big deal because of my awesome save." Lance cut in, giving a dashing smile to the princess before Keith shoved him.

"It is a big deal!" She retaliated, "What if we had had Galra ships on our backs, what then?"

"Allura, Pidge said she was sorry-" Shiro tried to cut it, but was shot down like Lance's idea to make a siren noise from scratch.

"It was not just Pidge's doing, Shiro. When Voltron is formed all thoughts are merged along with the lions. It is a team wide doing when something goes wrong."

"With all due respect Allura, we've already kicked Zarkon's prehistoric butt _once_ , or are we just forgetting about that?" Lance chimed in.

"And all ended up I different ends of the galaxy." She finished. There was a moment of uneasy science before the Altean spoke again. "I know I am coming off as a nag, and I'm sorry for that." She sighed. "I'm just concerned that next training session, or heaven forbid, _battle,_ we won't be so lucky."

Shiro nodded in understanding. "Well then what do you suggest? We're all ears."

"Well," Allura smiled towards the paladins, as if she's been holding onto the thought for a while. "In the… _past,"_ She said, adjusting as well. "Paladins, on account of being chosen by their lions, would have to complete an extensive problem-solving assignment."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Lance cut in. "You mean a _test?_ "

"Well, _yes..."_ She said, smiling a bit.

"Hold on," Keith said. "I thought the lions chose their paladins, what if we they failed?"

"Well, that's a good question…" Allura pondered.

"You see, no paladin has ever failed." Coran said. "I suppose nothing, it just helps the old problem solving juices in your head get flowing! Who knows? Might even help you five out on the battle field!"

"Anything that has the possibility of making us perform better as a team is worth a try." Shiro said, as the paladins groaned.

"Like steroids?" Hunk asked.

"Yes- wait, _no,_ Hunk, not steroids!" Shiro said quickly. "Okay, not _anything._ " The leader sighed, sometimes forgoing his team was made up of teenagers. "Forget it, I'm going to go help the Alteans set up. Everyone on the training deck in ten."

"So, we're doing a _math test?_ " Keith called after the leader. "Great."

"Wait, wait…" Hunk said nervously. "What if I fail? Will Yellow not love me anymore?!"

"Aw, Hunk, who could ever not love you?" Lance said reassuringly, slinging an arm around his buddy.

"That _is_ true." Hunk agreed.

" _Besides,"_ Pidge chimed in, "No paladin has ever failed it."

"Yeah." Snorted Keith, "It's probably just a bunch of stuff we already know."

"Don't worry, Hunk." Pidge said again, "Any Bonehead could pass it."

"So there's hope for Lance." Keith said, the others, besides Hunk, laughing along. Lance shot him daggers with his eyes, slightly catching Keith off guard. They had always messed with each other, why get serious about it now?

"This has nothing to do with intelligence." Lance said to the team. "Some people just can't do math." He said dismissively.

Keith just stared at him. "Not passing a test doesn't make you dumb? You've got to be kidding me."

"Some people just don't test well!" Lance shot back. "I'm just saying it's a lousy way to measure intellect, everyone learns differently."

Keith looked at him as if he had four heads. "Sounds like you're just planning on throwing the test. God Lance, can't you take anything seriously?"

"Hey!" Lance yelled. "I'm not dumb or anything! I can pass the test if I want to."

Keith rolled his eyes, walking away from their two person audience of Pidge and Hunk, who had hung back to watch, see if they needed to stop another fight from going too far. So they weren't the _best_ at their job… "Prove it." Keith said as he pushed past the pair.

"What was _that_ about?" Pidge asked, slightly questioning her choice of the word _bonehead_ only moments ago, but the boys ignored her. Hunk just gave Lance a calm, knowing smile, as if saying, _you've got this._

But for once, Lance wasn't too sure.

…..

By the time the teens had met back up with Shiro and got down to the training deck, Coran had already set up five tables and some chairs. He placed a small metal tablet-like thing on each of the desks with a glowing blue button in the middle.

"You'll have a varga and a half to complete all your questions, just press the blue to start and press it again when you're done!" Coran explained to the crew as they all sat down.

Lance sat in between Hunk and Keith, Pidge and Shiro in front of them. "Don't even think about copying off me." Keith said.

"Yeah," Lance laughed. "You'll be the first person I'll think to copy off of, _dropout."_

"Hey!" Shiro called back. "Knock it off! This is to better us as a team, not divide us further."

"Whatever." Keith muttered as Coran called: " _Begin!"_

They all pressed the blue squares and the tablets quickly displayed holographic equations. Every time you answer one, it moves onto the next. The team was spaced out enough in the large white training deck to not have cheating be an issue. Lance's leg started bouncing the second the first blue multiple choice question appeared in front of his face.

Lance slowly began analysing the question in his head, carefully selecting option A. Lance glanced over at Keith and saw he was already on question four. Panic set in as his leg began bouncing more.

 _Take your time._ He told himself. _You've got plenty of time._

Until, or course, he didn't. The multiple choices had gone by easy enough, but once he got into the long answers he really knew he was screwed. A lot of the questions were phrased weirdly from the translation that the test underwent from Altean to English. Or, maybe it just stumped him because Pidge was out of the room by the time he reached question six. The others soon disappearing as the questions droned on until, it was just him.

"Hang in there, buddy." Hunk whispered as he got up from his seat and tossed Coran his tablet, knowing math was no where his friend's strength lied.

In the end it took Lance two varga, using up his full varga and a half and then some. His leg never stopped bouncing.

Finally, _finally,_ Lance immerged in the common room with the rest of his team, falling next to Hunk on the couch and groaning. "Aw, c'mon, it couldn't have been that bad!" He smiled encouragingly

"Took you long enough." Keith commented as Hunk shook his head at the black haired boy. Lance just dropped his head further into the ark of the couch.

"Lance, uh..isn't the _best_ at math." Hunk said as lightly as he could.

"I'm an idiot is what he's trying to say." Lance said, not looking up from where his head lay. Now _that_ caught everyone off guard.

Keith's eyes widened. "Is _Lance McLain_ really admitting he's not good at something?" He questioned, mouth hanging open.

"Everyone's not good at stuff, Lance." Pidge said softly, giving Keith a death glare.

"I just get the numbers mixed up in my head, alight? Just drop it." Lance growled, making Keith back off. The occasional times when Lance wasn't running around the castle making jokes and talking about how great he was, was the one and only time Keith ever got concerned.

"Oh, okay…" He said awkwardly. "That sucks."

"Well!" Called Coran. "We've got the results right here. Come on now, gather round!" He said to the paladins scattered across the room as Coran stood behind the Castle's controls, pulling up the holo-screen.

He grabbed the first metal brick when everyone was gathered around. He plugged it in to the machine and watched the empty red bar quickly fill up to the top. After it passed the half-way point, the red turned green. "Ah, excellent work, number five! Off the charts, that's a hundred percent!"

Pidge smiled and Shiro put a hand on her shoulder. "Good job, Pidge! I'm proud of you." He said.

"Well, most of it was just quadric-graphical formulation, similar to my engineering courses at the Garrison." She said humbly.

"Everyone's not good at stuff." She heard Lance whisper behind her.

Coran popped in the next one, and the next. "Shiro, Ninety-three, Hunk, Eighty-five, and Keith, seventy-four. And Lance," Coran said, reaching for the last one. The others seemed very interested in the last score, besides Shiro who hadn't been there for the previous discussion. Lance on the other hand just stood there with his hands in his jacket pockets, wearing a bored look on his face, like he had already excepted failure.

It made everyone slightly uneasy, Lance being quiet and all. Coran's face showed not disappointment but confusion. No one else could read the Altean percent but from how low the red filling on the bar was it couldn't be good. "Well that can't be right…" The man pondered.

"What is it, Coran?" Shiro egged on.

"Thirty-two percent." The man said.

The room went silent but Lance's face remained the same; neutral and bored. "First Paladin to fail." Lance said, breaking the silence with a voice that matched his face. "Great."

Before anyone could say anything, he spun on his heel and walked out of the room.

"Wow." Said Hunk bluntly, looking to Keith because subtly was not this sweet guys thing. "Bet you feel like a jerk now."

…..

Lance had skipped dinner after Allura had assured Lance that he could take the test as many times as he wanted. But, alas, the castle was soon dark.

As night had fallen, well, it was _space,_ Allura had just rigged the lights to go light and dark in the castle to keep everyone on a sleep schedule, Pidge walked the halls to Green's hanger. She laughed a bit to herself; _Sleep._ She thought.

Being stuck in a castle with just boys and a bossy Princess, night was the only time she could work in peace. Upgrading her lion, working on problem solving algorithms and keeping an eye on any possible place in the universe where Matt and her dad may be might not be everyone's definition of relaxation, but it sure was Pidge's.

She was a kid genius, and as cool as that may be sometimes, it also means that she always has to keep her mind working. _Like a hamster!_ Lance ha remarked a few days ago, sparking a whole lecture on what a hamster was.

 _So, there just like furry mice?_ Allura had asked.

 _Yes!_ Lance had cried.

 _No they most certainly are NOT!_ Hunk had yelled back. The whole ordeal had gone on for a while. Her and Keith had just sat by, very amused by the whole debate.

Speaking of Keith… "What are you doing?" Pidge asked him as he was standing outside of Lance's door.

"What is he _doing_ in there?!" The boy had questioned, as no one had seen the Blue Paladin since the whole test fiasco.

Pidge smiled. "Aw, it really is driving you crazy not having someone to drive you crazy, isn't it?"

He ignored her. "What are _you_ doing up? Can't you ever just sleep like a normal person?"

Pidge scoffed. "Sleep is for the weak."

"Sleep is for the _living."_ He corrected.

"Oh well, at least I know you won't tell Shiro." She shrugged.

"And why is that?"

"Because I'll just tell him that you're stalking outside of Lance's door like a freak." She smiled wickedly back.

His permanently grim face drew even more such. "Deal." He barked.

"Why don't you just knock?" She asked the boy.

He rolled his eyes nonchalantly. "I don't care." He said

"Yeah, sure." Pidge rolled right back. "Hey, one more thing?"

"What?" He moaned, but before he could even get the full word out, Pidge started pounding on Lance's door, than ran off towards Green's hanger. "Wha- Pidge!" But the door was already open.

"Keith?" Lance asked surprised, as he saw the Red Paladin at his door.

"Um, yeah, hi." He said quickly. "Pidge, she knocked…" Keith said awkwardly.

"Okay?" Lance said. Keith saw over Lance's shoulder the table covered in formula-filled papers.

"It _this_ what you've been doing all day?" Keith asked, pushing past the teen and making his way into Lance's room uninvited. Keith looked at all of the problems, and even though he himself had only scored a seventy-four, he could still tell most of them were incorrect.

"I don't want to hear it, Keith." Lance said, nowhere near his cheery self as he slumped down on his bed. "I know they're wrong."

"Sorry for, you know being a jerk earlier. Didn't know you were so touchy about it."

Lance rolled his eyes. "Shiro put you up to this?"

"What? No, I…" But he really didn't know what to say. Sure Lance could slack off, but this time he was really, _really_ trying. Some people just couldn't do numbers. "Come on, follow me." Keith said.

"What, why?" But Keith didn't feel like explaining himself, so instead he did the next best thing, grabbing Lance's butchered-equation filled notebook and running out the door.

"Keith!" Lance yelled, because he wasn't in the mood to have Keith go laugh at his sheets upon sheets of _garbage_.

But Keith just dashed away, grabbing Pidge's wrist as he plowed his way down the hall.

"Hey!" She called, but when she saw Lance chasing them, she realized that she was now an accomplice and just kind of went with it.

They made a hard left into the kitchen skidding to a stop on the far side of the island, Lance right behind them and stopping abruptly on the other side. "Not funny, Keith!" Lance called. "Wow, got Pidge agents me too!" He whined, sounding a bit more like himself.

Keith threw the notebook on the table. "Can you tutor him?" Keith asked.

"What?" Both Pidge and Lanced asked together, in equal confusion.

"Pidge, you scored a hundred percent, can you teach Lance how you did that?" He asked again.

"I can ask for my own help." Lance said.

"Really?" Said Pidge, "Because you _kind of_ barricaded yourself in your room." She said.

"Hey!" Lance said, voice progressively getting back to normal as he gestured to the notes on the table. "I was working!"

"Nine times six?" Keith said flatly.

Lance stood paralyzed. After a moment, he finally shouted "I'm not good with numbers!"

"So let Pidge help you." Keith said simply.

"You know," the girl said, "I _can_ talk, and I _can_ help you. It's no big deal, Lance. Everyone's-"

"Not good at stuff, I know." Lance finished before slumping in a chair. "It just seems like everyone in this castle _is!_ "

Pidge snorted, began leafing through the pages filled with backwards numbers and frustrated scribbles. "Believe me, Lance, I'm not good at a lot of things." She stopped. "Did you draw this?" She asked, flipping to a page and seeing a beautiful woman with frizzy brown hair and light skin, covered in freckles, emerging from large, blooming flowers. The pencil drawn picture even made Keith look, _just the slightest bit,_ impressed.

Lance sighed, looking embarrassed all the more. "It's just a sketch!" He said quickly, "It's my mom when she was younger."

Keith was just about to question why his mom was white, but Pidge was too quick to say: "Lance, let me see your pencil." For once Lance did so wordlessly, and the pair watched as she scribbled down a mutilated stick figure.

"What is _that?_ " Keith asked, honestly clueless.

"My best attempt at a drawing." Pidge frowned. "My mom's an artist, too," She laughed, a little sadly. "She painted Van Gough's _Starry Night_ on my wall when I was a kid. I wanted to be like her _so bad,_ but, I took after my dad instead, got his mind." She smiled again, a little sadder this time because it was really a hard thing to think about your mom when she doesn't know where you are. "She used to always say _everybody's not good at something."_

 _"_ Jeez…" Keith breathed out, kicking himself for running his mouth…again.

"So what'd you do?" Lance asked, hanging onto every word she said, starting to kind of not feel like an idiot, and, also kind of feeling like one, but for a different reason…

"I gave up my dreams of being something I wasn't good at and found science. I realized that dwelling on the fact that I couldn't do something wasn't going to help me at all. I mean sure, if I had _really_ wanted to do something with art in my life, then I would have worked at it until I got better. But I just, I don't know, didn't have the fire in my belly for it. There was no passion there, not like there is for science."

"Wow," Said Lance. "That's pretty cool. What about you, Keith?"

"What?" He asked quickly, being caught off guard. He didn't like not being prepared.

"What are you not good at?" Lance asked.

"I, uh…" Off guard, off guard!

"Is there a reason you can't do math?" Pidge asked, sensing Keith's panic and luring Lance away to give Keith time to think of an answer. If there was one thing Pidge really knew, even if everyone else didn't know that she knew, it was her teammates.

She knew that Shiro couldn't talk about his arm without crinkling up his left eye, just a bit. Hunk couldn't look at daisies because that was his grandmother's dog's name, and Lance couldn't talk about why his family never visited him at the Garrison. And, she knew that Keith couldn't be put on the spot.

Though she didn't show it, she knew more than just books."Like, dyslexia or something?" She finished.

"I wish." Lance moaned. "At least then I'd have an excuse."

"Well what is it then?" Keith asked.

"There _is_ no reason." Lance sighed, "numbers just get mixed up in my head, then I get frustrated and-" He looked to Pidge and took a breath. "Everybody's not good at something." He smiled.

"You know, Lance." Said Pidge, "You don't have to take the test again. It was just some dumb team building thing, it holds no merit."

"Nope!" Lance said, standing up from the chair so fast it tipped over and fell to the floor. "No, no, no, I _refuse_ to be the only paladin to fail this, teach me things!"

The two smiled. Oh yeah, he was back, alright.

The three stayed at the table well into the night, going over problems, getting some formulas down, even laughing a bit. It was actually… a pretty good night.

The next morning, Lance being way too awake for the three hours of sleep he got, rushed into the dining room the second he knew everyone was up. Awaiting, like a kid on Christmas morning. "Allura, give me another crack at the test!" He shouted.

"Lance," Shiro spoke, having been trying to upgrade the particle barrier at the time, had only heard about the testing incident from Coran. "That was just to help work on problem solving skills, you don't have to-"

But Lance just shushed her. "Hurry, before it all leaves my brain!" He called.

Pidge passed nervously in the monitoring room, watching Lance re-write the test. Keith stood calmly by, leaning agents the wall. "Come on, Lance…" She breathed nervously, hoping it all wasn't for nothing, but also knowing the Cuban boy was trying his best. She anxiously watched his leg out up and down, and up and down.

"Would you relax?" Keith said annoyed. "He'll be fine."

...

Cora slowly inserted the cord, almost like he was purposely being sluggish. Like he didn't want to see the results as much as the rest of them. For once, Lance looked intrigued, hopeful. "And it's…" Coran said, reading the results. His face hardened as much as a comic relief could. "A fifty-one."

More silence. Disbelief.

"Lance.." Pidge breathed sympathetically.

"Fifty-one.." Lance repeated. "I got a fifty-one?!" He cheered. "I never scored anything past a forty at the Garrison!" Pidge didn't even realize that she was laughing until she was being pulled into a side hug by Hunk.

A failure to some is an achievement to another; it all depends on where your point of reference lies. Before they knew it, the whole team was celebrating. Allura, however, seemed confused by the whole event. "Lance," She said, "A fifty-one is-"

" _A pass."_ Shiro cut her off. "And besides, this whole actively was just to better us as a team." He looked to Keith. "Pidge told me what you two did. Now _that's_ what I call a team."

The three stood there for a second. "I didn't think about it like that." Keith said, and he truly didn't. He never thought of bettering Voltron, just… helping out a teammate. Guess everything comes full circle.

"Well, a good deed causes a ripple effect." Hunk smiled. "Oh, and next time you all diced to have a midnight study party, it would be very nice to receive an invitation!"

"Aw, Hunk!" Pidge laughed as the large boy began storming out of the room. "It was a one night thing, it meant nothing!" She called, chasing after him.

Shiro put a hand on Lance's shoulder, much like he had done to Pidge the day before. "Nice going team, I'm proud of you." He then smiled to Keith. "Both of you." The leader then quickly followed the noises of betrayal from the other side of the door, leaving just Red and Blue.

Lance sighed. "Thanks again, Mullet." He said quickly. "I hate to admit it but... couldn't have done it without you."

Keith just starred. He wasn't all that used to the whole _getting thanked_ thing. "Uh, sure…Lance."

The boy nodded, walked away. "Talking to people!" Keith yelled quickly, kicking himself for it but talking fast so he couldn't stop himself. "You asked me what I wasn't good at. And, yeah, I'm not too good at, talking to people. I can still fly better then you, though." He finished, so that way it wasn't too sappy.

"No way! Team building or not, get to your lion, first one to the nearest planet!" Lance challenged.

"You're on!" Keith fired back, but the two were already wrestling each other out the door and racing to their hangers.

Pidge smiled at Shiro as the two plowed down the hallway. "They're back."

…

A/N: Sorry if it was boring! Reviews are love!

 _If you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its entire life believe that is stupid._

-Azilia


End file.
